*Long Thread Alert*

Miguna and I agreed on many things and also differed on many things. One thing I opposed, and he supported, was a ‘resistance movement’. That’s because the resistance movement Raila had in mind was not the same one Miguna and some of us had in mind.

Much as Raila detractors always accuse him of violence, he seemed to favour peaceful civil disobedience. This was not just in that battle for power against Uhuru. The clash between Raila and Ruto emanated from this very issue. Raila’s inability to sustain violence in 2007.

Kalenjins believed Luos did little to fight for an election Raila had won in 2007. Kalenjins believed, and many still do, that if not them, the Grand Coalition Government would not have happened.

In other words, Luos did little in post-Kibaki rigging to fight for power. The stone-throwing Luo in Kisumu and the one at Serena talks were all the same. Cowards. Nothing but cowards. When Raila miraculously appeared with Kibaki in Sagana, he confirmed it. Bloody cowards!

Nothing shocked the Kalenjin nation than this action. Years later as an undergraduate student at Moi, Kalenjin students were always very loud and open in their disdain for Luo cowardice. They believed, some still do, that Luos can’t fight to the last mile. That Luos are sellouts!

They chided the Luo penchant for resorting to stones, and looting. That Luos will protest by shouting and throwing stones and, in the melee, loot this and that; but at the sight of extreme violence, like a hacked limb here, a chopped head there, Luos will recoil and disappear!

It may very well be that Raila could answer violence with violence in his early political life (he’s an old man now) but nothing in recorded history presents a day or hour this happened. Anyone with a moment when Raila authored violence can counter-argue here. I’ll be glad!

History is a contest of memory against forgetting. Raila’s role in 1982 is to me a very exaggerated. And the exaggerations are filled with utter hearsay, like:

Raila tried to topple Moi through a coup.

Ok, How?

By using Airforce.

Hmm, Ok, How?

(They never answer...)

I came civically of age late in the day, and that shouldn’t be an excuse for ignorance. It is for this reason that I try to pick allegations and accusations on Raila that are objective, and concede. But on the question of violence, Raila is a poor executor. He simply can’t.

This is why I told Miguna (see chat above) that I was opposed to demonstrations and protests that only left Luos or Raila supporter as the victims or fatalities. Miguna believed he could do better than Raila to bring Jubilee down through relentless uprising. Fertile imagination!

Peaceful Demonstrations and protests were the most extreme Raila was going to go. Beyond that, they’d be nothing! Even the decision to boycott certain companies/products was not Raila’s ideas. He came on board very late when it was clear his failure would demoralize his base.

For instance, Raila never believed that boycotting Safaricom would achieve much; yet NASA had big issues with Safaricom. It is no wonder he never really switched off his Safaricom line. Most NASA higher ups never did as well. They just bought additional airtel SIM cards.

Raila always talked of ‘many ways of killing a cat’. Much as the Ndii/Miguna group still pushed for endless confrontation with Uhuru, it was obvious to some of us that Raila was never going to repeat 2013-2017. After repeat election, a new engagement strategy was necessary.

There has been two goals that some of us who support Raila have come to believe he aspires: (a) to bring some equity here by (b) winning the presidency.

The goal of a more fair society, a more humane capitalist society, a more just society, a more socially cohesive society is the reason some of us back Odinga, of course, much of that is utopia but it doesn’t hurt to wallow in it, if not for anything, for its moral superiority.

I’m glad that Raila took his supporters away from streets. Their peaceful demonstrations would not have achieved the national reckoning his handshake has achieved. A thousand of us would be dead. Jubilee would still be in power. Zero sum.

Indeed, there are many ways of killing a cat. If you don’t want to sit on it, give it an icecream!